


Season 12 Meta

by ladykjane



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta, Meta Essay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2019-09-16 14:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16955994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladykjane/pseuds/ladykjane
Summary: Originally posted 21 Oct 2016 at https://kayanem.tumblr.com/post/152124971049/spn-12x02-well-i-didnt-hate-it-and-thats-almost





	1. 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On (Episode Reaction)

LET’S DO THIS

1\. THE ROAD SO FAR so very little dialogue, so very much explosions

2\. NOW is a sharp contrast to the action packed Road So Far, being very soft and quiet and hushed. The lighting is so beautiful, and I love that this is taking place under the trees; Dean has such a history of wandering off the fairytale path into the woods, to find his family. For once it has paid off.

Obviously then Mary turns out to be a badass lady who can protect herself, and I appreciate that they’re establishing that early on. And then we learn that Dean’s childhood fairytales were the stories of his mother (nobody can recite that kind of history without it being ingrained from childhood).

SOFT HUGS OH NO

3\. NEW TITLE CARD I like the fire, not so sure about the S8 reminiscent colour scheme

4\. Oh CAS it’s my favourite flavour of Cas, smitey impatient and done with your shit Cas <3 <3 <3 <3

5\. “He gave himself up for me” wow that’s some creative use of the truth there, Dean. He does this a lot through this episode; he tells Mary (and Cas) variations on the truth, or recaps on the truth that don’t tell the whole story. Usually Dean does that to protect himself, but here he’s solely about protecting the other person.

6\. Bless Dabb for patching the plotholes _and_ recapping the canon history with this sweet little conversation.

7\. Nothing is more hilarious to me than taking Sam to the vet. Whenever Sam is separated from Dean he just gravitates to vets. It’s the real reason behind the codependency.

8\. Crowley pulling the angel blade is so interesting. He’s done it before, but it feels significant to have him start the season investigating deaths, hiding from demons, and dropping the angel blade from his sleeve.

9\. SAM! I love this spiral shot.

I’m so curious as to how much research they chose to do on GB for background on the British Men of Letters, because that correction of Toni’s from English > British seems oddly specific? Britain covers the whole island, England does not, and that seems important to Toni.

Toni is so condescending and is wildly underestimating Sam. Who is AWESOME in this scene. Sam Fucking Winchester and all that.

10\. The music cues in this episode are distinctly more cinematic and orchestral than they have been recently. There’s also a subtle but effective use of silence and quiet spaces, no music cues at all, just the sound of the Impala or the dialogue or nothing at all.

11\. BUNKER this whole sequence is a delight. Mary’s curiosity is so bright. I love that small moment of Dean handing Mary the gun, and then her facing down Cas so coolly. She’s so quickly being establishing as capable and competent and I really appreciate that.

I also appreciate DeanCas reunions, more SOFT HUGS \o/ and Cas having NO TIME for Dean’s stupid comments and also having no time for computers

12\. I’m so intrigued as to where they’re taking this British MoL thing. They’re already establishing them as extremely competent and intelligent, and I am very much a fan of having credible, flawed, fallible villains with well established motivations, especially if they’re human. (I don’t buy that GB is utterly monster free, however. There must be ghosts _everywhere_.)

I know everyone is already jumping all over the British MoL for assuming what works for Britain will work for the States, but I think that’s part of the point; we consistently get different viewpoints of hunters in this episode, from Toni to the Winchester boys to Mary. It’s partly about what makes a monster, about where the lines are drawn between hunter and monster (something the show has been toying with for seasons now) and about how monsters get defined. Anything supernatural = monster? So would the British MoL consider Cas a monster?

There’s also this undercurrent of politics and colonialism that I’m not sure they’re aiming for, but it’s somewhat inevitable when it comes to Britain vs America vs America.

Anyway, Sam, this is horrific.

13\. The contrast between the earthy settings of the Winchester scenes to the cool, crisp, pale settings of the Crowley scenes. Again Crowley with the angel blade, surrounded by all this white. Very heavenly. 

14\. The strength of Sam Winchester is extraordinary but utterly perfect.

15\. Mary having culture shock is such a small but important detail. And Mary leading the questioning in the search for Sam is also very important.

16\. The visual reminders of having Sam behind bars before the hallucinations start is so good.

17\. Those damn brass knuckles. I like that we have a new weapon to hurt angels - and presumably demons? - and unlike many people I watched this with, I don’t mind Cas getting caught out? Cas’s angelness is balanced and tempered by his humanity now, so yes, he’s more susceptible to human flaws.

18\. Oh, SAM. Such an obvious ruse, but effective nonetheless. For a moment, at least. And is there anything so brutal as Sam _nearly_ escaping, having all that hope and then losing it.

19\. This scene between Dean and Mary is so, so good. Mary acknowledging that she’s not okay, that she wouldn’t have chosen this for her sons, that this is terrifying, and she killed someone to save her son that she doesn’t know. And Dean acknowledging that but being able to assert his identity and self-worth as a hunter, that he wasn’t just made this way but he does choose it. The character development makes me want to cry, because we hoped but did we really believe we’d see the day when Dean Winchester had self-esteem and quietly corrected his parent with all the empathy and love and support of his badass ~~boyfriend~~ best friend angel. MY HEART

20\. This close is so quiet and reflective. 

Such a great season opener, the pacing was slow and soft but driven and purposeful all the same. The balance between storylines was so perfectly woven; Dabb has historically been very good at that and I never doubted he’d come through on that front, but I really liked how ambiguous and restrained he was in delivery. (Also surprisingly good at cars? He has a specific timeline and everything?) Cas and Crowley got important and well-motivated and relevant moments without being the focus or de-powered (look see show, you can do it!), nothing was wrapped up but it was emotionally satisfying nonetheless. It was also very beautiful thanks Sgriccia. 

Goddammit Dabb, why did you have to lay down a hand like that right out the gate?


	2. 12x02 Mamma Mia (Episode Reaction)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted 21 Oct 2016 at https://kayanem.tumblr.com/post/152124971049/spn-12x02-well-i-didnt-hate-it-and-thats-almost

Well I didn’t _hate_ it and that’s almost a first for BRL in 4 years so …

1\. THEN Casifer Amara 

2\. NOW wow nope nope nope

This is so bad I’m watching through my fingers. It’s so bad. It would have been skeevy and incredibly dubious consent if it wasn’t a hallucination, but the fact that it’s happening on Sam’s head really makes me deeply uncomfortable. Sam has enough awful memories and psychological trauma, and the effect of a hallucination has just as much impact. Protect Sam Winchester, he doesn’t deserve this kind of mental assault. Also someone get him a new anti-possession tattoo please.

I also really don’t like the casual misogyny. If Toni were a male villain, this scene just wouldn’t have happened, and not because Sam is straight*. It’s not just the female seductress trope, but it’s the insidious underhand nature of it, the perpetuation of the “poison is a woman’s weapon” myth. And I’m not sure how to phrase this, but in this case it seems a out of character for Toni as a female character. It’s not that a woman can’t pursue a path of dubious sexual consent to get what she wants, but the little we know of Toni so far has told us she’s a single mother (guardian?) who is terrified of a male torturer. That doesn’t seem like the kind of character who would then turn to dubcon magic. But maybe I’m stereotyping, or trying to have my trope cake and eat it. I don’t know?

*debate as required.

3\. … why do we either have Exposition to the MAX, or, zero minus exposition. I assume Dean has taken Mary back to the bunker because he’s more concerned about protecting Mary than Sam? Which seems … odd, but ok, he trusts Cas to look for Sam and keep him informed.

Is this a good point to remind anyone reading this that I think they’ve firmly pushed DeanCas into the “friend-brother” envelope? Because I still do. I’m going to spend this season loving their friendship if it continues like this because omg I love their friendship. It’s so important. Dean has someone he can be vulnerable with and admit that he’s worried? Cas has no patience for human nonsense but he will listen anyway because friend?

(If they push the shipping I’m obviously going to be rolling with it, but otherwise I’m now just firmly in the Never Gonna Happen camp.)

4\. Mary is the bright light in this episode. I love her. She has so much agency. She isn’t who the Winchesters thought she would be, she won’t be that, and she isn’t mothering or domestic or soft (which, of course she’s not mothering. She had tiny children for 4 years, and then she died. The majority of her life was not being a mother at all.)

It’s obvious this is going to be a source of conflict, especially since Mary also comments on what a great father John was. I hope - desperately - that Mary doesn’t try to be a “good mother” or some such nonsense. I hope she goes off and has adventures and trusts her boys to be awesome without her treating them like children.

5\. I admittedly like the “are we still having the same conversation” line. It just emphasises that Cas can have all the knowledge but without knowing how to apply it, he’s lost at sea. It also neatly reminds the audience that Subtext is a thing in conversations with Dean and Cas, and lets us know that Cas is aware of that too.

6\. I never thought I’d say this with regards to a BRL ep, but that little snippet of dialogue beginning with “I can’t do my job if I’m worried about you” is so good. Dean is being an ass, albeit understandably. He’s doing what he always does, and it’s controlling and unhealthy and Mary is so not down with that shit. It’s so important that she firmly enforces her own choices and decisions, and doesn’t make Dean responsible for her. Mary is responsible for herself, and she cares about him but she won’t stop him either. It’s almost as if Winchesters can have healthy familial relationships, who knew?

7\. I’m so upset about Sam. 

8\. This is the most relatable Rowena has ever been. She’s so unabashed about what she wants and how she gets it.

Crowley continuing with the odd angelic symbolism, all dressed in white.

9\. I want to care more about rockstarman but I don’t. It’s so predictable. Possession by Lucifer blah blah blah.

10\. [muffled screaming about Dean telling Mary about Sam getting out]

11\. I still don’t care about rockstarman and I’m not entirely sure I’m supposed to. His wife killed herself and he thought that was selfish? This is … this is a criticism, right? He’s not a sympathetic character at all, he’s a deeply messed up man who misses his wife but doesn’t miss the woman at all.

Why does Lucifer had red eyes … you know what, fuck it, sure, why not.

12\. I’m enjoying the contrast between Rowena and Crowley vs Mary and Dean.

Also just enjoying Rowena, even if her motivations are weak and Crowley is just bluffing because he’s useless.

13\. I cannot believe Cas has hay in his truck. Actual bales of hay. In his TRUCK. WH A T

Oh and I also very much enjoy this interaction between Dean and Cas and Mary. It’s such a good example of show not tell and I’ve never said that about a BRL episode before so let’s have a moment of awed silence.

14\. Ok bored with Lucifer.

15\. Dean banished himself? Is that what happened?

16\. That Benny mention is so weird I can’t decide what to make of it.

17\. If everyone could stop underestimating Lucifer I think that would be great, come on Crowley you should know better

18\. How is Sam so quick to believe Dean is alive? He’s just spent hours being tortured with hallucinogens but Dean turns up and he just thinks yeah this seems accurate … actually that does seem likely, nvm

19\. Is Toni just supposed to be wildly sadistic and her entire character up until this point was an act, or is she just very badly written here?

YAY MARY wait how is Sam so quick to believe Mary is alive? Has Sam just passed the point of questioning anything and just accepts any presented reality?

20\. (I appreciate Dean being smart)

I hate that a man comes in to correct Toni and override her actions, even though I hate Toni’s actions. This is very frustrating.

Also, that odd British man is flirting with Cas and I’m glad Cas doesn’t approve except he did take his number so …

21\. YAY NON COOKING MARY

This pie bit is so unpleasant but also such character importance. Dean indulges because he so very rarely gets the opportunity, and he has no manners because he grew up in motel rooms with an absent father.

22\. SAM my heart, he’s so awkward and shy and tall and young and vulnerable.

23\. S12 = Sad Montage Season?

(Look, I’ve talked about how I’m pretty sure That Photo was a prop failure ( _90% sure that was a poor prop recycling choice because someone underestimated our ability to immediately identify a photo seen for 5s in an ep 7yrs ago BUT 10% suspicious because show_ ) because if they’d intended to invoke end!verse, they’d have put Cas and Bobby in focus during the framing, but I’m enjoying the ongoing discussion of it as a subtext decision. I disagree, but I wish it was true.)

24\. “they’re no better than the monsters they fail to control” – I’m hoping they explore this further but I’ve been saying that for six seasons, so.


	3. 12x01/02 Impala Symbolism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted 23 Oct 2016 at https://kayanem.tumblr.com/post/152214934064/we-are-always-all-over-the-impala-as-a-conduit-for

  
We are always all over the Impala as a conduit for symbolism and metaphor - she’s primarily accepted as a symbol for Dean, although there are certainly a few alternative meta floating around, suggesting the car is a metaphor for the Winchester relationship or that it’s all about freedom - so why didn’t we jump all over the Impala getting battered in 12x01?( _Links referenced<http://dustydreamsanddirtyscars.tumblr.com/post/77090177105/nobody-puts-baby-in-the-corner-the-impala-as-a> and <https://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/90708784703/s-cornelius-since-writing-this-post-ive-been>, plus another post lost to tumblr & time._)

Probably because we all got distracted by the previous Impala focused scene; Mary getting reacquainted with the car, and her memory is that it’s John’ car. To Mary, the Impala represents the John Winchester she remembers, and that memory is perfect, pristine, and undamaged by time. No surprise then that the Impala gets sideswiped, smashed windows and all, but note that Dean controls her to bring her safely through the crash. Dean protects John’s memory as best he can, but he can’t stop the inevitable truth from damaging Mary’s perception. And we get that neatly beginning in 12x02.

But hey, the Impala can represent more than one man at once. Dean is also battered and bruised by a perfect memory being flawed by reality in this episode, as he confronts the truth of Mary Winchester. Just like the car, he can get up and keep moving. But we don’t see Dean fix the Impala, and I’m not sure she’s been fixed yet. 12x02 picks up immediately after 12x01, and we don’t get a shot of the Impala showing her dented side in the episode. And the end of 12x02 indicates that Dean isn’t coping with reconciling the Mary in his memory with the reality.

Interesting sidepoint: after the car is sideswiped, Cas takes the passenger seat. Dean/the Impala is fragile and battered, and so Cas takes the priority role beside Dean, relegating Mary to the back seat. Is it that Cas is reliable, safe when Dean is injured, whereas Mary is suddenly unknown?

(Screenshot chosen because I love that this particular shot visually echoes Dean having just escaped his grave in 4x01. We even got the line recall from the same episode.)


	4. 12x03 The Foundry (Episode Reaction)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted 28 October 2016 at https://kayanem.tumblr.com/post/152438267924/spn-12x03-the-foundry-all-hail-mary

All hail Mary Winchester

1\. THEN the sound editing on this section is really awkward

2\. NOW these hipster foodies are ridiculous and also relatable until the moment they go into the abandoned house at which point NOPE

This is genuinely creepy, and considering I originally streamed this live at 2am in a pitch dark room it was just chock full of Extra Creep. (The dramatic zoom? Not so much, and Singer is totally doing it now to fuck with me personally.)

3\. And then he opens with that gorgeous shot of Mary in the bunker, a tiny puddle of light surrounded by all the darkness. She’s immediately defined as isolated, clinging to this one bit of illumination in John’s journal. It’s almost as though she’s clinging to the past, but the journal is that of a man she doesn’t really know. She’s adrift of everything familiar. And the bunker isn’t home to her, it’s this enormous space of dark around her.

And then: Cas, equally adrift and not sure where he belongs. Both cast in roles they don’t understand, and don’t really want? Dean has Mary firmly in a “mom” role, and of course he told Cas he was his brother.

The hair cut is such a classic transformation trope.

4\. Morning sunshine goddammit Berens

I would love to flail about the shippiness of this but I’m actually just awed by the twist of the knife. Dean is so relaxed, so cheerful, with his breakfast and his family all under one roof. This kind of chirpy familiarity is Dean being soft, being vulnerable, and it makes the stab in the heart later all the more effective.

Also I enjoy how this scene plays out, it’s all such a wonderful subtle use of miscommunication. They’re all being honest about what they’re doing, and where they’re going, but they’re refusing to acknowledge their motivations. Cas is seeking Lucifer because he doesn’t know what to do with himself - Mary does the exact same thing in a few scenes time - and Dean’s facade of “everything is fine” begins crumbling as Sam fires the initial shots to establish Mary isn’t happy.

5\. I can’t even deal with this conversation (did you cut your hair Sam asks of the woman who has HALF THE HAIR NOW jfc Sam) because it’s so sad. Dean and Mary are so alike, and they could be such good friends, but Dean can’t see Mary as anything other than his mother, even as he acts like a parent toward her? Her body language and somewhat sly answers are all those of a child avoiding answering the blunt demands of a parent.

Mary just wants to do something she knows. (see: Mary doing exactly as Cas did, except Dean invites himself along on this one.)

And … this is all about the codependency (take a shot). Dean has been told again and again that family has to be there 24/7, killing themselves and the world to save each other, and that’s what he expects from Mary and Cas. But that’s not what a healthy family is.

6\. I see the bike is causing discussion but I just figured it was an indication of Dean’s inner state: he’s desperately clinging to the family he’s made but actually, he knows it’s not working as he thought it would, and he could run away by himself.

7\. Sam looks so uncomfortable in the back seat. I don’t think JP actually fits in there, does he.

8\. Oh Cas … look, if I wasn’t going to love Berens for any other reason, he got Cas out of the fucking trenchcoat. ALL HAIL ROBERT BERENS please set it on fire next time Bobo I’m counting on you

Oh yeah, and Beyonce. Two things about this: Crowley’s very subtle mockery of Cas through the alias’ names is so in character, and I also really enjoy the implication that Cas knows who Beyonce is (or at least, knows of her) but not JayZ.

9\. Frozen hearts. That isn’t ominous or metaphoric at all.

10\. Omg Crowley just stop

Personal Tragic Headcanon: Crowley knows Dean isn’t dead, because Dean isn’t in Hell.

11\. SO CREEPY. The ghost story part of this episode is just plain scary D:

I didn’t clock it on the first watch, but wow, Dean is the one to banish the little ghost boy clinging to his mother’s arm.

12\. There’s something so achingly sad about the way the boys take over Mary’s case. It’s the kind of soft control she was trying to escape finding this hunt, and instead they’ve taken over and found a conclusion and she hasn’t been able to do anything she wanted to in seeking out the case. They’re acting out of love, but it’s not to her benefit. Sam’s “we’ll help you with this” is so inadvertently condescending; Mary was a good hunter, and now she’s been schooled by her children, left feeling useless and unable to contribute as a person but also as a mother. She feels like she has nothing to offer them.

13\. Even thought Cas has left the Winchesters behind, he’s still using them as his frame of reference, and I do love that.

I also love Cas’ reaction to finding out Rowena is involved. So done with this mother-son nonsense.

14\. The slightly desperate edge of Mary saying “I’m fine” because she knows they’re going to sideline her. I just … I love Mary and her characterisation, and I really deeply appreciate seeing this woman being smart, competent, feminine, flawed, motivated, driven, and seeking her independence and sense-of-self, but being constantly, gently, “protected” by men who love her.

Let’s all note the way that Dean goes very quiet and still and barely contained panic of Mary being broken somehow, and that Sam is equally worried but continually looks to Dean for instruction.

15\. The echo between this shot of Sam and Dean over the grave, and Mary in the bunker at the start. OH.

16\. “Mom’s not a thing” THANK YOU SAM WINCHESTER sixteen gold stars for you and your speech

17\. I still can’t find it to care about Lucifer, but I’m all about Rowena being a smart, competent, badass witch (and not solely the mother she was reduced to by Cas. Those Winchesters, can’t quite wrap their heads around mothers being anything other than moms.)

18\. Shivers and shivers. Children kept in stasis, people frozen as children forever by their cold-hearted father figure. Children haunted by their father, seeking people to help but always just freezing them out.

19\. Oh, Mary didn’t really break free of the possession until Sam said her name.

20\. The visual symmetry of a father burning surrounded by children, on this show, is such a deliberate choice. The children can only move on once the father’s memory is dead. A father figure given power by the way he haunts his children.

21\. Dean, you can’t apologise for hijacking her case, or sidelining her, if you don’t actually intend to do anything different in the future.

Oh, Winchesters. Just break my heart. The way that Dean doesn’t say anything this whole scene, doesn’t even try to say anything, just lets it happen. I utterly understand Mary, I think she’s right to walk away and she’s justified in wanting to be her own person, existing in this entirely new world, before she can be whatever these total strangers need her to be. She doesn’t exist to be something for Sam and Dean, she exists to be Mary Winchester.

Of course, the heartbreaking bit of it all is that they just don’t understand each other. Mary can’t possibly understand how much Dean has lost, how many people he’s lost, or how he understands love to be this strange twisted version where people will sacrifice their own happiness and self for someone else.

And it all comes back to John: the moment Mary says she misses John is when Dean clams up and the panic rises, because he can’t fight back against that.


End file.
